The garment making industry has historically used a number of standard body measurement charts to produce garments. Various industry and governmental institutions such as the American National Standards Institute or ANSI have developed these standardized body measurement charts over time. At this time, there are several hundred such standard charts available for different body types (e.g. child, girl, misses, woman, and woman over 55). But, these charts have never fully represented the broad diversity of actual body types. They all assume an average height between 5′5″-5″6″ for all women in the world, for instance. Nor do these standard charts keep up with the changing shape of the average body as it varies with the evolving health, diet, and exercise habits of our populace. The challenge for the “average” clothing buyer to find clothes that actually fit well has become more and more difficult, resulting in trends towards poorer fit with fewer options available for the short, the tall, the skinny, and the wider clothing buyers.
With the advent of three-dimensional body scanners (commercial as well as home based), it has become possible to generate accurate anthropometric representation of the scanned human body. Those measurements provide an accurate representation of the surface of the human body, but do not include the requisite ease required for different garment types and uses. An overcoat needs to be looser than a leotard, for instance. In the past, ease has generally been provided in fixed amounts for each garment type, sometimes varied based on body somototypes (general body shapes). These fixed amounts of ease were appropriate for mass-produced clothing, based on standard sizes. But, with the availability of measurements that more accurately reflect the specific human body the garment is being manufactured for, ease that is proportional to that individual's actual body measurements will produce better fitting garments.